Does anyone know "when" Alva McDonald died, and where is he buried? Also, if you have a printed "obituary" on him, I'd like to see it posted on this site. I think that it would be of great interest to a number of researchers. Thank You!

U.S. Marshal Alva L. McDonald was born on September 15, 1876 in Curdsville Kentucky and died on January 4, 1942. I do not have his orbituary, but I believe he died in Oklahoma City.

Mike,

Thanks for the dates of birth & death on Marshal McDonald. Next week, I'll check the Oklahoma City and El Reno newspapers for an obituary. Even if he died elsewhere, the Oklahoma papers should have carried some notice.

I'm trying to determine if the ol' U.S. Marshal McDonald was the same Alva McDonald, who ended up as a feature writer for the Kansas City Star. Does anyone know, for sure?

Anyway, Thanks for your help; and, if I find anything at all about him, I'll "post it"!

Daily Oklahoman, Monday, January 5, 1942, p. 9 col. 1-2:

Former U.S. Marshal, State Politician Dies . . . Alva McDonald Won Fame As The "Hard Tracker"

{El Reno, Jan. 4} The end of the trail came here Sunday for Alva L. McDonald, who weathered four stormy years as United States Marshal for the Western District of Oklahoma to win the label "hard tracker" bestowed grudgingly in the state's criminal circles.

The Spanish-American and Philippines Insurrection veteran, whose career as a marshal from 1921 to 1925, might well have been labeled a chapter in the "Passing of Oklahoma Outlaws," fell dead as he entered the lobby of a downtown theater building to attend Sunday school at 9:30 a.m. Death was due to a heart ailment.

State Resident Since 1901 - - He was born Sept. 16, 1876, at Curdsville, Ky., and was graduated from Hartford college, Kentucky, in 1894. He served with the Seventh California volunteers and later with the 31st infantry in the Philippines. In the last 10 months in the Phillipines, he was military postmaster at Zambonanga.

He came to Oklahoma in 1901, settling at El Reno and in 1905 was elected a member of the city council, serving as president of that body for two terms. In 1907, Theodore Roosevelt appointed him clerk of the third district federal court in Alaska and he was stationed at Fairbanks.

After three years in Alaska, he returned to El Reno; and, in 1912, was chosen a delegate to the Republican National Convention. He had been a delegate to several conventions since, including the 1940 conclave.

Bolted Republicans Ranks - An old-line Republican of the state, he was a personal friend of Theodore Roosevelt and led the Bull Moose movement in this state as chairman of the party in 1912. In 1928, he bolted Republican ranks to favor Al Smith.

McDonald was appointed marshal by President Harding. He was the old type of officer and went with his men on cases.

Under his leadership, a band of deputy marshals handled some of the most difficult cases in the state's history.

Weeks of painful work through the brush hills of the Osage country were more attractive to him than the pleasant office of the marshal.

Beginning with the breaking up of the notorious Al Spencer gang, he perhaps accomplished as much as any other man in the organized war on the bandits who terrorized the state in his day.

Mail Robbery Solved - He and his deputies played an important part in the running down of such men as Jeff Duree, the ghost bandit, Blackie Thompson, the Thayers, Frank Nash and a dozen others.

It was in the autumn of 1923 that the Okesa mail robbery was solved. Spencer slain and members of his gang arrested following weeks of McDonald's usual "hard tracker" tactics.

An outstanding feature of his officership was his investigation of the "Shawnee reign of terror," which accompanied the shops strike in the spring of 1923. Twenty-three men, including high officials of the shops craft, were implicated by McDonald in these disorders.

On one occasion, he mounted the platform alone and told a strikers' meeting of several thousand shopmen what he thought of the incidents in Shawnee.

He withstood a constant political barrage while holding the post. Rumors of his resignation, or his removal from office, occurred with regularity from time to time. From each investigation, he emerged unscathed.

Survivors include his wife; a son, Alva Ferguson McDonald, Fairview; a daughter, Mrs. Gordon Bierer, Guthrie, and two brothers and four sisters.

Interment was made in the El Reno Cemetery.

I am convinced, now, that U.S. Marshal Alva L. McDonald, who died in El Reno, Oklahoma, in 1942, was not the feature writer/reporter for the K.C. Star newspaper, known as A.B. MacDonald, during this same time period.

I have a letter dated 1940 from Wesley Stout, editor of the Saturday Evening Post, who claims that he knew A.B. MacDonald as a newspaper reporter, and nothing but a newspaperman, since 1888. In the letter, there is no mention of MacDonald ever being a lawman. Therefor, I conclude that they were two different men.

Does anyone know what line of work Alva L. McDonald pursued "after" he left the Marshal's service? Did he leave "law enforcement", completely? What did he do between 1925-1940?

ALVA M'DONALD HELD FOR MURDER

Alva McDonald, state chairman of the progressive party, is under arrest charged with murder as a result of a fight with A. T. Marsh, an attorney, at 5:30 o'clock Tuesday, the outcome of which was Marsh died from the wounds received.

Marsh accosted on the streets an old soldier named Morris and requested the loan of fifty cents which was offered. McDonald appeared at this juncture and asked the soldier if that was the last fifty cents he had. Receiving an affirmative answer, McDonald struck Marsh in the face, saying "You are the biggest thief in the country," knocking him to the pavement.

The concussion crushed Marsh's skull and he was carried into a butcher shop where he recovered sufficiently to wash his head and was taken to the police station and thence to the hospital where he died Wednesday night at 5:30.

McDonald was arrested and placed under $1,500 bond. Marsh was a socialist and forty-five years old and married. Following the fall of Marsh, McDonald assisted him to his feet and carried him into the butcher shop and went to the hospital. He sat at his bedside until 11 o'clock Wednesday night. At that hour McDonald himself fainted and afterwards was placed in jail without bond.

(Source: Cherokee County Democrat, Dec. 5, 1912 with an El Reno, Okla. dateline of Nov.29)



MCDONALD GETS OFF WITH FINE OF $50

Alva McDonald of El Reno, chairman of the state central progressive committee, was finally cleared of the charge of killing F. T. Marsh in El Reno in November, 1912, in an opinion by the Criminal Court of Appeals {10OkCr413} Saturday morning.

At his trial in the lower court, McDonald entered a plea of "guilty of manslaughter" in the second degree and was fined $50 by District Judge John J. Carney. The fine was assessed by the court over the objection of the County Attorney of Candadian County, who contended that McDonald should be tried before a jury on the charge of murder, and appealed to the Criminal Court for an order directing McDonald's trial before a jury.

The opinion of the higher court, which was written by Judge Henry M. Furman, holds that the lower court has the power without the consent of the prosecuting attorney, to accept the plea and fix the fine without intervention by jury.

McDonald struck Marsh with his fist in a quarrel on the streets of El Reno, the latter dying either as a result of the blow or injuries received when he struck the sidewalk.

(Source: Daily Oklahoman, Jan. 14, 1914 pg. 1)